HISTORICAL SUMMARY 62 B 



time. From 1878, though fewer big pools were opened, the production 

 mounted upward, with a temporary setback from 1883 to 1886, until 

 1891, when the output of Pennsylvania and New York culminated in the 

 yield of 33,000,000 barrels per annum. The late developments have been 

 mainly southwest of Pittsburgh, with small pools to the east and north- 

 east in rocks of steeper dips. 



DEVELOPMENT OF OIL IN WEST VIRGINIA 



Following the boom inaugurated by the bringing in of the Drake well 

 at Titusville, Pennsylvania, in 1859, an old brine well at Burning Springs, 

 West Virginia, was reopened and gave 50 barrels a day, while the follow- 

 ing year the Lewellyn well, 100 feet deep, started at 1,000 barrels a day 

 and soon increased to 2,000 barrels. Confederate raiders destroyed the 

 wells in 1863, and drilling was not actively resumed until 1865, when the 

 success of wells at AVhite Oaks led to the development of some excellent 

 territory. 



The early wells w^ere mostly along the Burning Springs-Eureka anti- 

 cline, extending from Burning Springs, in Wirt County, northward to 

 Eureka, Pleasants County, on the Ohio, where the lower rocks were 

 brought within the limits of spring-pole drilling. The opening of the 

 other districts was delayed nearly 30 years, owing to the comparative 

 great depth to the oil sands and the inadequacy of the prevailing methods 

 when applied to caving rocks. 



iVlthough production was continuous from 1859 to 1888, the volume 

 never exceeded 200,000 barrels per annum, and was usually under 150,000. 

 In 1889, however, owing to improved methods and a better understanding 

 of the geology, the production leaped in a few months to half a million 

 barrels, and continued upward until 1900, when it passed the Pennsyl- 

 vania-New York output, which had declined from 33,000,000 barrels in 

 1891 to 14,559,000 barrels in 1900, reaching a total of over 16,000,000 

 barrels. Since then the decline has been slow, paralleling closely that of 

 the two States mentioned. 



DEVELOPMENT OF OIL IN EASTERN OHIO 



Boring for brine became active in 1806 and following years along the 

 Muskingum Valley, etcetera, on the flanks of the prolongation of the 

 Burning Springs-Eureka anticline across the Ohio Eiver and north of 

 the salt district of West A^irginia; but, as in the latter State, the oil was 

 a nuisance and no use was made of it at the time. The wells were, how- 

 ever, reopened and new ones drilled, following the Pennsylvania oil ex- 

 citement in 1859-1860, and some oil obtained. The production remained 



